Making Friends

It's easy in busines and in sales to loose sight of what you are trying to do or the purpose behind everything, so here is a little reminder - it's about relationships. It's about people. It's about helping another person or company attain their goals which helps you attain yours as well. It's about the "why" of what you are doing. And it's about making friends. 

Business shouldn't be a grind. It's not. It's about building relationships with others that result in more business. We tend to look at sales and taking on new clients as making new friends. It may sound hokey but the truth is, I only want to do business with people that I like and that I would like to deal with daily and in the future. My ideal scene would be to have on-going relationships with my clients so we could actually develop a working friendship. Our goal is to make friends with clients. That is the ideal setting for your business. That is how you build stability and ultimately gain the most pleasure out of what you do. Work becomes more of a game and time with clients becomes fun. 

Start looking at your client base to decide who you feel you can develop better relationships with and how to make them more of a friend and also, who you may need to get rid of as a client perhaps because they don't align with your business. This one thing can results in a huge amount of growth for your company. To only do business with people or companies you feel you can create long term relationships with and ultiamtely make your friend. The foundation and strength of your company will grow from this alone. So go make some friends, not just clients. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

People

People. The essence and core of your business is people. I wanted to make a comment on people as it relates to your company. People are the very core to everything you do as a company. They are what makes it all work. What makes it go. So much of your resources should be supporting your people. This could be training, help, bonuses, creating a nice environment etc. In other words, treat your people well. Take care of them. Help them grow. People are amazing. They are talented, smart and innovative. People are willing and ready to play the game of winning. Take care of them. Acknowledge them. Help and support them and most importantly, put them in the right place, challenge them and allow them to grow and flourish in your company. If you put them in an area, trust them to do the job. Don't do them the disservice of handling their problems for them. Let them solve them, their smarter than you think. I would encourage you to look at doing whatever is needed this week and from here on out to figure out how to help and service your people so they can flourish. Provide training, challenge, rewards etc. Figure out what they need and what you can do to help them perform better. People, if you let them, can do incredible things for you and your company. Trust them and push them to blossom to their full potential and you will see the amazing effects this will have on your company.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Dragging Decision is Bad Business

Too frequently in business you hear people say "let me get back to you next week.." "Let's discuss this end of 3rd quarter..." Etc. This kind of procrastination related to making decisions is bad business. The decision or information at hand will not change in 2 months, next week or next year. Force yourself to look at the situation, evaluate the opportunities and make a decision right now.
Every delay you make, hurts your business. Your slowness or inability to make fast decisions is holding you back. Learn to discipline yourself to make fast decisions and commit to those decisions in order to speed up the flow of your company. Watch what happens when implemented. Swift decisions and swift actions will lead to growth and success. Let your competition mess around with delayed decision making processes but don't allow yourself to fall the effect of it. - Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Staying the Course

Over the years in business, I have seen two distinct personality types as they relate to success. Those that stay the course and those that jump from place to place. Consistently I have seen the one's that stay the course in whatever path they have chosen outperform those that hop around.

Most people want success but few have the discipline and focus to attain it. You must decide first and foremost on what you are going to commit to. Then you need to do everything to learn it, do it, hustle and get better at it and most importantly, stay the course. The temptation to jump ship and do something else is a distraction. Stay the course. Focus on what you decided to do and do it well over time. This is the road to take if you want long term success.

Let's take a few examples:

- Steve Jobs started Apple in the 70's. He's been focused on computers and doing what he's doing his whole working life.

- Ralph Lauren has been interested in fashion and design since his teens, he has never deviated off of this path.

- Richard Branson started the Virgin brand of companies in his early 20's. Although he own's a large assortment of many different companies, if you ask him and study them, he will tell you that his businesses are all comprised of the same Virgin brand principals making the overall company a "Branded Venture Group" company.

These are just a few examples of high profile people you may have heard of but the reality is, I know a huge amount of successful people not quite as high profile but still extremely successful that have followed the same formula. They have focused on something they wanted to do, plastics, computers, sales, technology, hotels etc and they have stayed the course their entire working lives.

I haven't met too many people that jump around from one place to the next that are successful. In all honesty, I haven't even met one.

So the take away here is this:

1) Find something you want to do forever and decide to do it

2) Stay the course and persist in order to attain success in that field.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Find Inspiration

Inspiration breeds action. Each day, use something that inspires you to act. Goals take action. If you want to get anywhere in life, you need to act. Inspiration helps action. It pushes you to do. To push through barriers and execute.
What inspires you? Find things that seem to inspire you and incorporate them into your day. It could be a video. A movie. A quote. A picture. An idea. Whatever, just discover it and then use it daily to inspire action. Success and goal attainment comes down to how bad you want something and then acting on you goals to execute tasks that will get you there. People have up days and down days but if you keep yourself inspired and focused, each day can be packed with acting and executing toward your goals. Find something that inspires you and use it daily.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group